10-cap Scotland star to land new superstar teammate as World Cup winner 'nears' lucrative move

The World Cup-winning forward is out of contract after ending a glittering 17-year spell with the Bundesliga giants last month, leaving the Allianz Arena having won 13 league titles and two Champions League titles alongside a host of other honours.

Muller, who also won the World Cup with Germany in 2014 and was the tournament’s Golden Boot winner in 2010, has been linked with moves to Fiorentina, FC Dallas and Galatasaray this summer, but it looks like the Canadian outfit have won the race for his signature.

The 35-year-old will link up with 10-cap Scotland international Gauld at the Canadian club if the move is rubber stamped, with the ex-Dundee United academy product, once dubbed ‘the Scottish Lionel Messi’, a regular in the Whitecaps midfield since his move to BC Place in 2021.

According to GiveMeSport journalist Ben Jacobs, the Bavaria-born star’s move to the MLS is ‘not 100% done’, but is nearing completion, with ‘only the final details’ remaining on a deal that would see him sign for the ‘Caps this summer. Over the weekend, it was revealed that the Germany icon had rejected a move to LAFC, and had began discussions with the Canadian club, who are now in the process of negotiating a way to acquire the ‘pre-emptive rights’ to Muller from FC Cincinnati.

As per common practice in the MLS, each club can claim up to seven players per season through ‘right of discovery’, which means only the team with the resulting transfer rights is then allowed to negotiate with the player. In regards to Muller, it was FC Cincinnati who held the rights to him, meaning if other MLS clubs want to sign him, they must purchase the rights from whoever has them.

It is believed that Cincinnati are asking for a fee of around $400,000, which is a similar fee to what Charlotte FC received for ex-Borussia Dortmund winger Marco Reus’s rights when he transferred to LA Galaxy last summer. Should the deal be completed, he would become a TAM (Targeted Allocation Money) signing for 2025, and a DP (Designated Player) signing for 2026.

Another unique aspect of the MLS, this means Muller’s 2025 salary and contract (worth approximately $750,000 for the remainder of 2025) would be partially covered by TAM, reducing his cap hit to fit within the team's budget, with his second year contract shifting to a DP contract, which allows the club to exceed the MLS maximum budget without being fully counted against the salary cap. Scotland international Gauld is registered as a DP player for example, signing the deal when he arrived from SC Farense four years ago, before agreeing a DP contract extension in January 2024, in a deal which put him on the richest contract in the club’s history.

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